Thursday, September 30, 2010

Listen Local: Stereo Telescope

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I first saw this band open up for Mystery Roar (another local band) and Delorean this summer. I was instantly impressed with the indie synth pop sounds I heard coming from the stage, and like many others around me I was asking "Who are they?". I went up to the merch table afterwards and found out for myself.

Stereo Telescope is Nikki Dessingue and Kurt Schneider who have both been involved in multiple other bands (Campaign for Real Time and This Car Up) in the Boston scene. They came together to work on this side project and ended up turning it into a two person band. They work incredibly well as a synth pop band, with Nikki's penetrating vocals and the clean layering of Atari synth card (I think), multiple (his and hers) vocal tracks, drums, guitar, and a sense of urgency.

Synth-pop bands have been really popular in the past few years with bands like MGMT going mainstream, but what I like about Stereo Telescope is that you can understand their lyrics, they are clearly featured, poignant, and make sense. There is none of that fuzziness or excessive reverb that so many synth pop bands employ and you still get the fun electronic dancey beat. This band is quickly gathering speed after being featured by Spinner and local Boston publications, The Phoenix and Stuff. People are paying attention to this band, as they should be. This song is too damn catchy to ignore. Give it a listen and you'll see what I mean.

"Geography is not to blame, it’s that all you do is the same / Pick a town propose a song, keep it simple I can hum along / Let’s tear this city down, let’s start all over…"